


we're just made that way

by varygud



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28639449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/varygud/pseuds/varygud
Summary: It is 2008, and Sara Lance is floating off the coast of Lian Yu.On the shore of the island, another, older Sara dreads her arrival, as she desperately avoids the watch of her captors.And then Zari falls into the mix.____Or, Sara has a past, and so does Zari, and together they try to find a future.
Relationships: Sara Lance & Zari Tomaz | Zari Tarazi
Kudos: 9





	we're just made that way

For a long time, Sara never thought. She moved. She did that for a long, long time, when she was younger.   


Think, a part of her keeps begging. Think. 

She moves, until the stars come out overhead, and it is safe to stop. She curls up, in a spot she’s slept for a few nights now, and pulls her jacket over her head.

* * *

She dreams, a bit. 

* * *

She wakes on purpose a few hours later. She can’t afford to waste the night. It’s the only time she’s sure they’re not watching her. 

She pulls herself up into a sitting position and rests her head in her hands, eyes open to slits. It’s not safe to light a fire, she reminds herself.

Barely aware, she lets herself think. 

Barely awake, Sara lets herself remember. 

Laurel on the night they forgave each other, in the bar. They both cried. She thinks of Laurel’s shoulder in the neon lights, and her chin on it. 

Then, her body moves with the way she thought about Laurel the last time she was here. She remembers the bone-deep guilt. She remembers the terror. She remembers how it cut into the simultaneous experience of missing Laurel, made it all the more twisting, all the darker. 

Sara thinks again of the neon lights. She thinks of herself, then, all leather and distance. She thinks of the last time she saw Laurel, the real Laurel- her sister’s chin on her shoulder, in reverse, in the bunker. Sara, struggling with darkness, but hurtling into all the things that will save her- without her sister. Forever without her sister.   
  
She cries, a little, and lets herself, in the dark in the woods where no one can see. 

* * *

When she wakes again it is just before dawn. 

She lets herself remember, for just a moment. There’s still time, before she needs to get up and move. She remembers the good things, the people she can still reach. She thinks of her pilot’s chair. 

“Are you looking for me?” she whispers. She doesn’t dare make more sound. 

Through the treetops, she can see light creeping into the sky. 

She thinks of the last hug she got from Dig, Nate, skin shifting to steel, Mia’s hard gaze. It hurts to think about Ava, her company. Sara thinks of it anyway, how nice it felt to wear fuzzy slippers and slide across their apartment floor. How right it felt, to be all that she is and that, too. 

_ All that you were, _ cuts in the voice that doesn’t know what’s happening to her, the voice that is sure all those people are as lost to her as her sister, the voice that doesn’t know how long it’s been since she’s seen any of those people. 

It’s bright enough that Sara can blink into the trees, looking for trouble, and she does. She gathers the few things she has and rises.

Sara moves.

* * *

There is an ethereal noise, almost like a zipper, and a flash of light, and she thinks again. 

Sara stumbles back, hands reaching for the tree trunk behind her. A woman stands in front of her, catching her breath, a woman whose features are collapsing into relief, and Sara knows it is relief because Sara knows  _ her _ . 

Zari takes a step toward her.    
  
“Sara,” she says, “I’m so glad that worked.”


End file.
